94 The Irish Naturalist. April, 



OBITUARY. 



GEORGE FRANCIS FITZGERALD, Sc.D., F.R.S. 



George Francis Fitzgerald was born in 1851, and was educated privately 

 at home along with his two brothers until he entered Trinity College, 

 Dublin, at the early age of sixteen, where he soon showed that he 

 possessed remarkable ability. Although his name does not appear high on 

 the earlier honour lists of his class, before the close of his undergraduate 

 career he had outstripped all competitors, taking his degree as first 

 Senior Moderator in Mathematics and Mathematical Physics, and also in 

 Experimental Science. In 1877 he was elected a Fellow, and three years 

 later was appointed Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, 

 having been assistant to his predecessor in the chair for some years. His 

 reputation as one of the rising mathematical physicists of the day had 

 been by this time fully established in the scientific world by a paper read 

 before the Royal Society on the " Electro-magnetic Theory of Reflection 

 and Refraction." Of the many papers he published afterwards the most 

 important were of a similar description — namely, developing and 

 extending Maxwell's theory of electricity, especially in connection with 

 electrical radiation. It was more particularly in recognition of the value 

 of his researches in this class of work in the field of optics and electricity, 

 that one of the Royal Medals in the gift of the Royal Society was awarded 

 to him little more than a year ago. 



By Prof. Fitzgerald's death the cause of education in this country has 

 been deprived of one of its warmest supporters. For many years he 

 strenuously urged and exerted himself to bring about that reformation 

 in its primary education, the necessity for which is now generally 

 acknowledged, and a serious endeavour made to carry out. But nowhere 

 will his loss be more keenly felt than in Trinity College with which he 

 was so closely identified for the greater part of his life. In addition to 

 occupying the chair of Experimental Physics he was Registrar of the 

 Engineering School— offices which brought him into close contact with 

 a large number both of the graduates and undergraduates, to whom he 

 gave every encouragement and facility in his power in their work. His 

 vast knowledge and rare power of suggestion were just as freely at their 

 disposal as at that of the most eminent scientist. Much of the important 

 work which has been done of late years by members of the Trinity 

 School of Physics owes a great deal to his encouragement and the 

 valuable advice and assistance which he at all times delighted to give. 



Few men have done so much for the advancement and promotion 

 of science during the past twenty years as Prof. Fitzgerald. His 

 published papers, valuable as they are, are but a small portion of his 

 work. He was intimately acquainted with all the work which was done 

 in physical science, and was in constant communication with many of 

 the scientific pioneers of the day. His opinion and advice were 

 constantly asked for and ungrudgingly given. When questions of 

 difficulty arose, " ask Fitzgerald " was a common expression. It was a 



